PubMatic launches fraud-free program to help clean up online media ecosystem

A separate survey by Iotec has found that fraud is the top concern for media buyers when it comes to mobile advertising

Adtech company PubMatic, earlier this week announced a fraud-free program, including a money-back guarantee to combat the bad actors that fool marketers into paying for false impressions.

Ad fraud scams had become a recent Achilles’ heel for the industry, and this new program will help detect fraud on the sell-side platform (SSP) to increase transparency in the wider programmatic landscape.

Part of PubMatic’s efforts to combat ad fraud scams include dedicating a global inventory quality team and operational processes to fight them as they happen and to prevent them in the future. In addition, daily reporting reviews identify issues and communicate with the publisher to develop plans of action.

When fraud is detected in this program, advertisers will not have to pay for it. And if improvements aren’t seen within a defined timeframe, even with these new systems in place, PubMatic will pause or terminate the account. A credit will be promptly provided to these demand partners for any fraudulent traffic served by the platform, if certain criteria are met.

The proprietary platform is also fully engaged with IAB Tech Lab’s ads.txt initiative, which aims to eliminate the ability to profit from counterfeit inventory by providing distributors and content owners a way to identify authorized inventory sellers. It also partnered with Media Rating Council (MRC)-accredited vendors such as IAS and White Ops, that already conduct safety checks and inventory screenings across multiple formats.

PubMatic co-founder and chief executive officer Rajeev Goel, considered this another company milestone. He added: “ The importance of transparency and an efficient brand-safe supply chain are ever important for buyers. Our product innovations and inventory quality team take a rigorous approach to stamping out ad fraud to benefit our demand partners, their advertiser clients and the industry as a whole.”

Further findings in the survey revealed that one third of survey participants – “500 decision makers in the UK marketing industry” found dealing with mobile programmatic just as confusing as on desktop, while 41% found it to be more complicated on mobile. This is of particular concern given that over half of all digital ad spend in the UK is invested in mobile, according to Iotec.